Coronavirus: Nobel-prize scientist attacks Welsh and UK virus response
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
A Nobel-prize winning scientist has accused the Welsh and UK governments of a "dereliction of duty" for failing to make better use of domestic resources to address testing and kit shortages.
Sir Martin Evans said every resource should be mustered against coronavirus.
But instead he claimed "they're not using our own resources at all". He said a letter from Cardiff University offering help has had no reply.
The Welsh Government insisted the university is involved in the response.
BBC Wales also approached the UK government for comment.
Sir Martin was chancellor of the university for eight years. He stepped down from the ceremonial role in 2017.
Both governments have struggled to meet targets for testing they have set themselves, and have faced challenges with personal protective equipment (PPE).
On Tuesday health minister Vaughan Gething said Wales had sufficient stock of PPE to last for a "few days".
A target of 5,000 tests per day in Wales was abandoned earlier this week. Mr Gething has said Wales does not need so many tests with the lockdown reducing infections.
Sir Martin won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2007 with two colleagues for their work in using stem cells to modify genes in mice.
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He told BBC Wales he is aware that Cardiff University and others have offered help to the Welsh Government which "have not been accepted so far" because of the approach of Public Health Wales and Public Health England.
"I'm very concerned that this approach is one of petty bureaucracy, pettifogging, [and] form filling," he said.
"We are, in my opinion, in a war type situation. People are dying."
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"We have an invisible enemy sweeping the country," Sir Martin said. "We need to use every resource we can muster against it and yet our government, our governments I should say, are not doing this."
"They are trying to buy equipment from abroad, trying to buy PPE from abroad, trying to buy testing from abroad.
"They're not using our own resources at all and I think this is a dereliction of duty."
Sir Martin says he wrote to the first minister and Mr Gething about his concerns and has received no response, other than an acknowledgement of receipt of his letter.
He also said a letter from the vice chancellor of Cardiff University to the Welsh Government offering help has had no response either.
The Welsh Government insists there are regular discussions with representatives from Cardiff University and Public Health Wales to support operational delivery.
It added that Cardiff University has helped with a large quantity of reagent chemicals for testing, and that academics are advising the Welsh Government.
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